The holidays are officially over and life can resume it’s regular broadcast. I go back to work today. Joseph goes back to school tomorrow. Elizabeth, well, let’s face it. Every day is the weekend when you’re three.

If only she’d understand that.

Every morning, when she wakes up, the first thing she asks me is “Is it my weekend?”

For the longest time, I didn’t understand what she was asking. She goes to preschool two days a week, her grandparents’ house one day a week, and the rest of the week she’s with her dad or I. The odds are, most days would be considered her weekend.

Then I heard she and Joseph talk. Joseph, as a very big first grader, calmly explained to her that the weekends were the days when everyone got to hang out together. The question she’s really asking is, “Are we going to be together today?”

She doesn’t seem to mind too much that I work full time. She enjoys the days with her daycare provider, coming home with stories of her best friend and the baby and her “homework”. She loves spending the day with her grandparents who dote on her as the baby of the family. Still, the little question hits me in the bottom right hand corner of my heart where Mommy Guilt lives.

I always wanted to be a stay at home mom, but that’s not possible. So I keep my fingers crossed and I hope she’s as well-rounded and content as her brother seems.

For two weeks, every morning when she woke up and asked her question, I said yes. Today, I have to say no. I hope it’s a smooth transition. For me. She’s be just fine.

If you work outside the home, how do you ease back into the routine after time off?

Mandy Dawson is the creator of In Mandyland, an almost daily blog recording her adventures in juggling a full-time job, two active children, four arguing hens, a fluffy bunny, and one ex-husband. A self-diagnosed gardening and crafting addict, she often finds herself gluing together clay pots and trying to discover the cure for brown thumb. When she’s not writing, she can be found burning dinners while she stares off into space with a story idea. She was a regular contributor for Makes Fun of Stuff, Aiming Low, and Six Kitchens, and has been featured on BlogHer and Mamapedia. She is an Assistant Editor for Write on Edge and has had her fiction featured in three anthologies currently available on Amazon.